Food and the PlanetIn this continuation of a series of charts about the global food system, we’ll explore the impacts of climate change on our ability to feed our planet well into the future.

We’ve already seen how climate change and the growing human population are working against global food security. Climate change is warming and acidifying our oceans, causing droughts and other extreme weather events, and degrading the quality of arable land. At the same time, our growing population demands more resources than the planet can provide.

In this series of charts, we’ll show how, ironically, our quest to produce more food is exacerbating climate change and resource scarcity today and could ultimately contribute to food insecurity tomorrow.

Climate change will drive more intense droughts…

NASA research forecasts that North American droughts in the second half of this century could be “drier and longer” than those of the last 1,000 years. Additional research indicates a global increase in droughts. This new normal will have far-reaching effects for food production and our ability to feed a growing planet.

Summary of projected changes in crop yields (mostly wheat, maize, rice and soy), due to climate change over the 21st century. Data for each timeframe sum to 100%, indicating the percentage of projections showing yield increases versus decreases. The figure includes projections (based on 1,090 data points) for different emission scenarios, for tropical and temperate regions and for adaptation and no-adaptation cases combined. Changes in crop yields are relative to late 20th century levels.